你願意以隱私換取旅行的便利和舒適嗎

Leisure travelers have become used to controlling every step of a trip, from booking a flight or a car to making dinner reservations. Business travelers, less so; there has always been some corporate bean counter looking over their shoulders.

休閒旅行者已經習慣於控制旅行的每一步，從訂機票、租車到預訂晚餐。而商務旅行者不太會這樣。公司總會安排財務人員監督他們。

But that is changing as business travel picks up and the overseers of company budgets permit the digital empowerment of traveling employees and tentatively embrace the sharing economy.

但是情況在改變，因爲商務旅行越來越多，公司成本的監督者們開始允許商旅員工使用數字工具，並嘗試接受分享經濟。

Travel managers are calling this the age of traveler centricity, and apps from Uber, the ride-hailing service, and similar innovations are increasingly part of it. In the next few years, if company policies can keep up, the new era of personalized travel could lead to a host of new so-called intelligent services, delivered through apps and smartphones, that will automatically assist business travelers based on their profiles and preferences, potentially making what is typically a grind through traffic, airports and tight itineraries less stressful and more productive.

旅行經理們說，如今是以旅行者爲中心的時代，叫車服務Uber等應用程序及類似的創新正越來越多地參與其中。在未來幾年裏，如果公司政策相應改變，那麼個性化旅行的新時代將催生很多所謂的新型智能服務，它們通過應用程序和智能手機，根據商務旅行者的檔案和偏好自動提供幫助，屆時，交通、機場和緊張行程等一系列苦差事也許會變得不那麼沉重，而且會更成效。

“There is a shift away from the command-and-control perspectives of the past,” said Greeley Koch, executive director of the Association of Corporate Travel Executives. “The focus now is more on the traveler and the productivity of each trip, so that travelers can have the greatest return on investment on each trip.”

“現在情況發生了轉變，不再是過去那種命令與控制的模式，”公司旅行管理協會(Association of Corporate Travel Executives)的執行主任格里利·科克(Greeley Koch)說，“目前人們更關注旅行者本身，以及每次旅行的效率，讓旅行者能在每次旅行中獲得最大的投資回報。”

The environment is much changed from that of a few years ago, after the Great Recession froze much of business travel. Since then, a revolution in mobile technology has taken firm hold. The business travel market seems ripe for the kind of disruption that has transformed retailing, entertainment and other areas, offering technological solutions to make cumbersome transactions more intuitive and seamless.

幾年前，經濟衰退導致商務旅行大爲減少，如今環境改變了很多。自那時起，移動技術革新已牢固生根。商務旅行市場似乎已經成熟，能夠經受移動技術的衝擊，這種技術已經改變了零售和娛樂等行業。它提供技術解決方案，讓繁瑣的交易變得更易於理解和使用，而且更嚴密周到。

But while most business travelers have a smartphone and, according to a study by Expedia, 78 percent of them have used it in some travel-planning capacity, corporations still make it hard for their traveling employees to use current technology and integrate their own travel management tools with company programs. In part, this is a result of travel managers’ reluctance to give employees too much control over purchasing decisions, fearing that doing so will erode cost controls.

根據便利旅遊公司(Expedia)的研究，雖然大部分商務旅行者擁有智能手機，但是隻有78%的人用手機規劃旅行，公司政策仍讓商旅員工很難使用當今技術，很難把自己的旅行管理手段與公司的程序結合起來。其中一個原因是，旅行經理們不願給予員工太多購買決定權，擔心這樣做會影響成本控制。

“There is a general dissatisfaction with the corporate travel technology,” said Mark Hollyhead, the senior vice president for Egencia Americas, a travel management company owned by Expedia. “In the 10 to 15 years the Internet has grown, travel management has been driven by corporations. Compliance and reporting have been the bedrock of these policies.”

“人們普遍對公司的旅行技術感到不滿，”旅行管理公司易信達(Egencia Americas)的高級副總裁馬克·霍利海德(Mark Hollyhead)說。該公司隸屬於便利旅遊公司。“在互聯網發展的10至15年裏，旅行管理由公司驅動。服從和彙報一直是公司旅行政策的基礎。”

Only one in four companies had a policy governing mobile devices as they related to employee travel, according to research by the travel distribution service Travelport and the Association of Corporate Travel Executives. But some are beginning to recognize the need for greater flexibility. They are acknowledging that their employees who travel on business are behaving the way they do on their leisure trips — looking for information online and gaining insights from a variety of sources.

據旅行服務公司Travelport和公司旅行管理協會調查，只有四分之一的公司設立了關於員工旅行中利用移動設備的管理規定。但是有些公司開始意識到，有必要給予員工更多靈活性。它們認可員工在進行商務旅行時也採用休閒旅行的方式——在網上尋找信息，通過各種渠道獲得深入瞭解。

They also recognize that a new generation of young employees and managers who grew up in a digital age are moving up the ranks, and they are used to dealing with technology more directly on handsets.

這些公司也意識到，在數字時代成長起來的新一代年輕員工和經理們的職位在不斷上升，他們習慣於更直接地在手機上運用技術。

Travel policies traditionally focus on rules, enforcement and compliance. They typically run 50 or 60 pages and are written to deter a minority of travelers from doing the wrong thing rather than to encourage the majority who are doing the right thing, Mr. Koch said.

科克說，過去的旅行政策注重規則、執行和服從。政策文件一般長達五六十頁，目的在於阻止一小部分商旅員工做錯事，而不是爲了鼓勵大部分正確行事的員工。

“These policies were all-encompassing, from how you travel to who took care of your dog in your absence,” he said. “But people realized that when you have 60-page documents, no one knows what the policy contains anymore.”

“這些政策無所不包，從如何旅行到離家後小狗的看護，”他說，“但是人們發現，如果文件長達60頁，那麼誰也不知道里面到底有哪些規定。”

Now, with the emphasis shifting toward flexibility, policies are getting shorter. At the same time, companies are also loosening travel budgets after the relative austerity that accompanied the recession. With the economy growing and fuel prices low, the Global Business Travel Association expects total United States business travel spending to grow by 3 percent this year to about $300 billion, and by 6 percent in 2016.

如今，旅行政策變得越來越靈活，政策文件也越來越短。與此同時，在經濟衰退時期的相對緊縮之後，公司也放鬆了對旅行成本的控制。隨着經濟發展，油價降低，全球商務旅行協會(Global Business Travel Association)預計，今年美國的總商旅費可能會增長3%，達3000億美元，2016年會增長6%。

As a side benefit in this environment, corporations now have the opportunity to use travel policies to attract new employees — for example, by offering them the ability to travel in business class during longer trips or on international flights. “The talent war is back,” said Caroline Strachan, a vice president at American Express Global Business Travel. “If companies are starting to be challenged in finding new talent, then a shift in policy is a good thing.”

這種經濟環境的一個附帶益處是，現在公司有機會用旅行政策來吸引新僱員——比如，允許他們在長途旅行時或在國際航班上乘坐公務艙。“人才爭奪戰又開始了，”美國運通全球商務旅行部(American Express Global Business Travel)副總裁卡羅琳·斯特拉漢(Caroline Strachan)說，“如果公司在尋找新人才方面出現困難，那麼改變政策是個好辦法。”

“What has been really interesting, in the past couple of months, is seeing a shift where clients are understanding that their business travel policies are also an acquisition tool for talent,” she said, particularly for younger employees and among tech firms. In the changed economic climate, many companies are moving their travel departments away from finance or procurement and into human resources.

她說，“非常有趣的是，在過去幾個月裏，我們看到了這種變化，客戶們發現，商務旅行政策也是吸引人才的一種手段”，特別是對年輕僱員和技術公司來說。在經濟環境改變的情況下，很多公司把旅行部從財務部或採購部分離出來，挪到人力資源部。

Norm Rose, the president of Travel Tech Consulting, said travelers were the big winners as technology moved faster than corporate policies.

旅行技術諮詢公司(Travel Tech Consulting)總裁諾姆·羅斯(Norm Rose)說，技術發展快於公司政策改變這種局勢讓商旅者成爲大贏家。

“When you talk about mobile technology, what you’re really talking about is empowerment,” Mr. Rose said. “We are in an environment where the very fact that mobile technology is holding so strongly has shifted the balance of power toward travelers. For managed business, that’s a growing challenge.”

“我們在討論移動技術時，其實是在討論權力分配問題，”羅斯說，“在我們所處的環境中，移動技術十分強大，這改變了公司與商旅者之間的力量平衡。對商務管理來說，這個挑戰越來越大。”

Continuing innovation in mobile technology offers the prospect of a future in which interactive software will automatically be able to guide travelers through their journey, helping schedule and coordinate flights, hotels and rental cars.

隨着移動技術不斷創新，未來的互動軟件將能夠自動引導旅行者完成旅程，幫助規劃和協調機票、酒店預訂和車輛租賃。

“The more intelligence there is, the more behind-the-scenes activity can happen if there is a disruption or a change in flight,” Mr. Rose said. “This should make it easier for travelers. By 2020, we should begin to see the impact of this.”

“未來的技術會更加智能，在航班中斷或更改時，會有更多幕後活動得以實現，”羅斯說，“這會給旅行者帶來便利。到2020年，我們應該就會開始看到它的影響。”

Airlines and airports are already relying on sensors in airports to track the flow of passengers and identify bottlenecks in traffic between the curb and the gate. And they alert passengers either through text messages or emails if a flight is delayed.

航空公司和機場已經在依靠機場感應器追蹤乘客流量，找出乘客入口和登機口之間的交通瓶頸。如果航班延誤，他們通過短信或郵件告知乘客。

But technology in the future will allow them to see travelers’ positions — through the GPS device on their phones — to track their movements. If a passenger is late for a flight, for instance, an airline might decide to rebook the passenger on the next flight automatically. The car rental service or taxi service would know of the delay, and the hotel might be notified of a late arrival — all seamlessly.

不過，未來的技術能通過旅行者手機上的GPS看到他們的位置，追蹤他們的行動。如果乘客沒趕上飛機，航空公司可以決定自動爲他改簽下一個航班。租車公司或出租車公司以及酒店也會得到消息——一切都能實現無縫銜接。

“Today, this stuff is very manual and only happens primarily with the top executives of a company, who have someone who monitors their travel and takes care of them,” Mr. Koch said. “But in the future, that will all be linked together. All these things will trickle down and happen.”

“如今，這些事務還得人工操作，通常只有公司高層能享受這樣的待遇，有人照看他們的行程，處理這些事務，”科克說，“但是將來，所有這些都被聯繫起來。所有這些事情會自動關聯，自動進行。”

What is missing, however, is for a tech innovator like Apple or Google to come up with software and technology that integrate all the disparate flows of information that are collected and make them work together.

不過，現在需要的是蘋果(Apple)或谷歌(Google)這樣的技術創新公司設計出軟件和技術，把所有分散的信息整合起來，使之協同運作。

“This is kind of the holy grail,” Mr. Koch said. “We have all this power in our smartphones, but all the individual apps are not talking to each other yet.”

“這是最高目標，”科克說，“這些功能我們的智能手機都有，但是所有這些獨立的應用程序還沒有相互聯繫起來。”

For now, there are more prosaic apps. Airlines have long sought to develop more direct relationships with business travelers. Through their mobile travel apps, they can already offer more personal service and provide easy check-in options and electronic boarding passes to passengers.

目前，大多數應用程序較爲平庸。長期以來，航空公司一直想與商務旅行者建立更直接的關係。通過他們自己的旅行應用程序，航空公司已經能夠爲乘客提供更個性化的服務、更便捷的登機手續辦理方式，以及電子登機牌。

Going one step further, these apps also let passengers quickly find new options if their flights are canceled or delayed. And they also serve as a retail platform for airlines to offer other services, upgrades, car rentals or hotels.

再進一步，如果航班取消或延誤，這些應用程序還能讓乘客很快找到新選擇。它們也是零售平臺，航空公司可以通過它們提供其他服務、發佈最新消息、租車或訂酒店。

One of the consequences of this new technological ecosystem is a fragmentation of the travel market. In practical terms this means travelers need dozens of different apps to manage their trips — airlines, hotels, rental cars and travel groups all have their own apps for smartphones, and all seek to create unique relationships with travelers that are generally invisible to corporate travel managers.

這種新技術生態系統的一個結果是旅行市場碎片化。通俗地講就是，旅行者需要幾十個不同的應用程序來管理行程——航空公司、酒店、租車公司和旅行社都有自己的智能手機應用程序，都在努力與旅行者建立獨一無二的關係，而公司旅行經理們往往看不到這些。

Dealing with this growing complexity is fast turning into a major concern facing travel managers, according to Ms. Strachan of American Express.

據美國運通的斯特拉漢說，處理這些越來越複雜的應用程序正迅速成爲旅行經理們最主要的擔憂。

Still, travel managers see many benefits to this new technological environment. The ubiquity of smartphones, for example, is improving a company’s duty of care, a term that refers to its legal obligation to ensure the well-being of its traveling employees. It is now easier to track people on the road and ensure their safety.

不過，旅行經理們也看到了這種新技術環境的很多好處。例如，智能手機的普遍存在有利於公司履行關照義務(duty of care)，它指的是公司確保商旅員工安全的法律義務。現在，追蹤旅途中的員工、確保他們的安全變得更容易了。

“It’s gone beyond efficiency. It’s really about effectiveness,” said Eric Bailey, the corporate travel manager at Microsoft, who oversees about 5,000 traveling employees. “It’s not just about cost. It’s also about risk and liability reduction.”

“它不僅有效率，而且確實有效果，”微軟公司(Microsoft)的旅行經理埃裏克·貝利(Eric Bailey)說。他負責監管約5000名商旅員工。“它不僅能降低成本，還能減少風險和責任。”

Travel managers and business experts all acknowledge that these trends raise concerns about traveler privacy.

旅行經理和商務專家們都承認，這些趨勢增加了人們對旅行者隱私的擔憂。

“If you’re a business traveler, are you entirely comfortable giving up some privacy in return for better convenience and ease of travel?” said Michael W. McCormick, the executive director of the Global Business Travel Association.

“如果你是商務旅行者，你是否非常樂意放棄部分隱私，以獲得旅行的便利和舒適？”全球商務旅行協會的執行主任邁克爾·W·麥考密克(Michael W. McCormick)說。

“If you are provided with a company device, the expectation is that you will leave it turned on,” Mr. Koch said. “But the concern is, what if you are going out for dinner or on a date or whatever? Where is the limit? That is being debated currently.”

“如果公司給了你一個設備，公司是期待你一直開啓它的，”科克說，“但問題是，如果你是外出用餐或約會呢？也要開着它嗎？界線在哪裏？這是目前討論的重點。”

“People have no problem posting pictures of themselves on Facebook,” he said. “But there is always a level of concern that they don’t want their companies to know where they are.”

“人們不介意在Facebook上發佈自己的照片，”他說，“但他們多少還是不想讓公司知道自己身在何處。”

About 75 percent of travel and expense budgets, including airfare and hotels, fall under some kind of managed budget. The rest, such as ground transportation, food, fuel and other incidentals, is generally outside what corporations can control. That’s a sector ripe for technological change, said Mr. Bailey of Microsoft.

約有75%的旅行和支出預算，包括機票和酒店，是受到成本控制約束的。其他的，比如地面交通、食物、燃料和其他雜費，通常是公司控制不了的。微軟公司的貝利說，針對後面這一部分進行技術改造的時機已成熟。

The best example of this is Uber, the ride-hailing service that has fast become the choice for business travelers, in the United States and abroad. Uber’s ease of use and technology have changed expectations about ground transportation during business trips, which had long been a major challenge for travelers.

最好的例子是叫車軟件Uber，它已經很快成爲商務旅行者的首選，不管是在美國還是其他國家。Uber的使用便捷性和技術已經改變了人們在商旅中對地面交通的期待。長期以來，地面交通一直是旅行者的主要難題之一。

The transformation has been swift. According to one estimate by Certify, an expense management company, Uber has nearly overtaken taxis in major American cities in terms of expensed business travel. Uber rides accounted for 47 percent of all expensed rides as of this March, up from just 14 percent in January 2014.

這種轉變非常迅速。據支出管理公司Certify估計，在美國的主要城市中，Uber在商務旅行消費方面幾乎已經超過出租車。今年3月，使用Uber乘車的消費佔全部乘車消費的47%，2014年1月，這個比例僅爲14%。

The share spent on taxis, limousines and hotel shuttles dropped to 52 percent, from 86 percent, in the same period. Lyft, a rival service, accounted for 1 percent of ground transportation expenses.

出租車、豪華轎車和酒店班車的消費從2014年1月的86%降至今年3月的52%。Uber的競爭對手Lyft在地面交通消費中所佔的份額爲1%。

“It’s exciting — and somewhat shocking — to see their growth and how they’ve captured corporate spend,” said Bob Neveu, chief executive of Certify, of services like Uber and Lyft. “They have solved the whole ground transportation piece.”

“它們的增長以及它們所佔的公司支出份額令人興奮，也有點令人震驚，”Certify的首席執行官鮑勃·內沃(Bob Neveu)在提到Uber和Lyft等叫車軟件時說，“它們解決了整個地面交通問題。”

The rise of the sharing economy presents a new challenge to corporate managers. It raises new questions about liability — Uber cars, for instance, do not always meet all local licensing and insurance requirements. Similar questions, too, are being raised by other services like Airbnb, the online home rental service.

分享經濟的崛起給公司經理們提出了新的挑戰。它帶來了新的責任問題。例如，Uber的車輛並非都符合所有的當地許可和保險要求。其他服務也存在類似問題，例如在線租房服務Airbnb。

“This is one of the big battles in the industry around these services, and what insurance or liability questions arise,” Mr. McCormick said. “Who is liable if something goes wrong?”

“這類服務的一個大問題是，它們會產生哪些保險或責任問題？”麥考密克說，“如果出了問題，誰來負責？”

“We talk about this like this is new, but the fundamentals are still the same,” he added. “Everybody wants to be effective, everyone wants to get business done, and everybody wants to get home safely.”

“我們說的好像都是新問題，但是基本的東西沒變，”他補充說，“大家都想提高效率，都想完成業務，都想平安回家。”